NZtechfreak: The sound quality I'm referring to is listening to music via line out or headphones, which is the important one. Dolby digital is nice for your video n all, but thats a minority of use for me versus actually listening to tunes.

Where are these benchmarks you speak of? I haven't seen anything to suggest its as good as the iPhone (unless you're referring to the 3GS perhaps).

EDIT: OK, I found some stuff on the benchmarks - the comparisons I saw were with the 3GS, which is lightyears slower than the iPhone 4 or my Galaxy S. Apparently it does 32m triangles per second, whereas the two phones I'm talking about push 90. 32m is not bad at all though, its better than the current Snapdragon devices, which are pretty capable for gaming as it is... I have to wonderi whethers its all a bit moot though, because Nokia would still have to attract developers to code the games to take advantage of it.

The site I saw the benchmarks: http://www.glbenchmark.com/compare.jsp?benchmark=glpro11&showhide=true&certified_only=1&D1=Nokia%20N8&D2=Apple%20iPhone%204&D3=Apple%20iPhone%203G%20S

Should hopefully be priced a bit lower than the iPhone4 or Galaxy S! :S

Current pricing has it more expensive that the Galaxy S at the places I've seen it. I'll hold out and check some early reviews before thinking more about jumping in, currently very satisfied with my GS after the 2.2 update.

Er, that Engadget comparison is so rigged its not even funny, they're notorious iPhone fanboys and that piece really showed them up badly. The EXIF data shows they did stuff like turn off the camera flash in the N8, and also the way they've presented the zooms also fails to show how much more detail the N8 is capturing.

Check these three links to get a more rigorous idea of how the N8 camera is:

I've seen quite a few samples out there now, seems to me Engadget were the only ones unable to take good shots with the N8, but then its obvious they weren't actually trying to really show its camera prowess...

There seem to be plenty of people hung up on the fact that the GUI isn't as flashy as some other devices. So long as it works well I don't really see a problem. There will be after market GUI's just as there is now for other symbian devices (e.g. SPB Shell) for those that want something different

From what I have read one main issue is some reviewers are not used to they way the GUI works, in other words it dosen't do it the way they are used to with their own phone. Well isn't that just the way with so many pieces of electronic equipment, get used to the fact it is different. They all have their advantages and we have differing preferences on how we like things to work and what features we find important.

The N8 seems to me to well specced especially the quad band WCDMA, the b,g,n WiFi, bluetooth 3 etc not to mention the 12 MP camera. Other things like the ability to use it as flash drive are very useful. It leaves all other devices in the dust.

It's a pity that Nokia doesn't have good penetration in North America as I think there would be much better press otherwise. However North America is well known for it NIH (not invented here) syndrome, which translates into "It cannot be as good as someting we make". It's no wonder that Android and the Forbidden Fruit get such good press in that part of the world.

Oops, sorry you're right. I meant to put penta. I don't know why Nokia aren't making a bigger deal about this. It is a phone that can roam pretty well anywhere worldwide how many other phones can do that?

There's an N8 listed on trademe but they obviously don't actually have one. The photo is a stock photo of an N810. I assume it's a "We'll order it in when the auction is closed" type of deal. $1,199 buy now. Seems pricey.

cdouble: There's an N8 listed on trademe but they obviously don't actually have one. The photo is a stock photo of an N810. I assume it's a "We'll order it in when the auction is closed" type of deal. $1,199 buy now. Seems pricey.

That kind of auction to my knowledge is against TradeMe rules. Drop shipping isn't allowed and personally I wouldn't get one from that type of trader.

I can get one here from Australia for $850 NZD ($649 AUD) at the shops when it is released next week.